How Long
by squibblyquill
Summary: Sarah thought she was brave enough to face Jareth and tell him the words of her heart. Mistaken, she now plods through an empty labyrinth praying for a second chance. Short sketch. I don't own labyrinth or characters.
1. Chapter 1

Sarah was exhausted. Her body was numb, her hands nearly trembling, her chest cavity ached something awful.

_How long will he make me roam this labyrinth_? She sighed in the very depths of her soul.

She really didn't know how much longer she'd hold up. She was actually surprised she hadn't collapsed already. It felt like weeks, though she knew she must have gotten lost only a few days ago.

_How did I get here in the first place_? She wondered, her mind half-dazed from the effort.

A wish, a simple, seemingly innocent wish. And there he'd stood before her. Only she'd not managed to say what she'd really hoped to say and instead had ended up here…wandering the labyrinth like a ridiculous fool. _His_ labyrinth. True enough, it recognized her as its champion, so did little to stop her from moving about in it…but logistics were no longer the issue. She wasn't looking for a baby or a castle or really anything. She just wanted _him_. The Goblin King.

Oh and how she'd faltered when he'd met her gaze with those cool, inscrutable eyes…

She wished, yearned, desired with all her wildly overextended being that he would appear out of thin air, waltz over to her, take her chin in his hand and massage her very spirit with his elfin lips until she melted into him completely.

That is what she wanted.

Unequivocal, really.

Except…her tongue cruelly held her prisoner. His wry smile also kept her in check. Not to mention his love of games! Oh, she was sure nothing would make him happier than for her to call out for him, fall at his feet and admit defeat. And God knows, perhaps even then he would merely cluck his tongue at her, laugh like a purring jungle cat and evaporate only to leave her burning in livid desire and dissolving in inescapable shame.

Or maybe he would welcome her into his awaiting arms…oh even the thought of it made her lose herself so that she had to halt to arrest the ragged crescendos in her breath.

_If he thinks it is best to drive me wild with suspense, mad with unquenched desire, I really don't know how much longer I can take it_. Sarah mused with a sardonic pessimism.

_If he wanted it to hurt, it does. If wanted me to love, I think I must. If he wanted me to lust, I cannot think of anything else_.

The Fae monarch had worked his spell so securely on Sarah that she began to despair of her fate. Of course, she knew, ultimately, that the labyrinth was not holding her prisoner. It was in fact her own heart that kept her chained in this gruesome farce.

_Oh he'll grant my wishes, shake me to the core, and then leave me here to waste away with silent longing_…

Indeed, Sarah loved Jareth more than she could say. Wanted him more than she'd ever believed possible. Yet, her heart ached. Ached so deep she wondered sometimes if it would shatter.

Sometimes she was angry at him for not seeing how much she needed him. Sometimes she was angry at herself for not knowing how to show him how much she needed him.

"Oh someone save me, someone take me away from this awful place!" The memory of that childish utterance returned to her amidst fevered thoughts.

_Oh, Jareth. Save me. Take me out of this inferno of doubt and desire. I'm drowning now in the strange paradise you've made for me. My soul has become kindling for flames that reach higher than this poor little creature ever dreamed. My sorely burning body is now haunted by the unbearable absence of your touch. My mind is spiraling in on itself, distraught in utter confusion and buoyed ever on hopes of at last finding peace in your embrace_. _If I knew of any desire greater than this it would surely kill me. But I don't want to die here, I want to live…live in the shelter of your love_.

Sarah exhaled and continued blindly trudging through corridor and topiary.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: How Long was originally a one shot. Someone then asked about an actual plot. So when this came, I thought to tack it on. How Long is not a story, but a collage that may or may not be added to. Also, I do not own Labyrinth. But sometimes it seems to own me.

"If you don't enjoy my Labyrinth, you're under no compulsion to stay."

"No, it's just…"

"Just what?" Slow but firm interjection slinked through his sensual lips. That characteristic smirk. Piercing through all of Sarah's excuses in a fatal instant, leaving her breathless once more.

"I mean," a glance to the side in the vain attempt to gain ground…

"What _do_ you mean, Sarah, tell me…" cocking his head, letting his feather flyaways quiver inches away from her cheeks.

Yes, he'd come to stare her down.

Oh stare he did with those seductively caustic eyes—foible of foibles, distraction of distractions! The Goblin King had undone her again, despite everything.

And still she wanted more.

"Madness…" she gasped under her breath.

"You say that so often…" teasing with the familiar refrain, "if you don't enjoy yourself go back to your little flat and play with your phone and your computer. I won't trouble your addled little brain a hair. Say the word, and I am no more than a figment of your imagination…"

"But that's what stings the most!" At last Sarah huffed, in full possession of her indignation once more.

"What? What is it that stings…" he trailed—baiting her. Let his hips open casually, showcasing those slender spandex legs.

Temporarily losing her focus, Sarah couldn't help noticing the way his body shifted at the question.

"That you can just flip a switch," she uttered with sudden resignation, "make reality a dream in a matter of moments, leaving my heart as its only witness."

The Lord of the Labyrinth appeared mildly moved by her soliloquy. But the look of fleeting concern which crossed his features was precisely that—fleeting.

"Grow up, Sarah."

And he was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah kicked around at the glittery sticks strewn across the winding stone pavilion. She was alone and conflicted.

"Grow up, grow up…what on earth can he mean? Grow up as in why the hell am I wandering around here like a crazy person…grow up as in will myself to forget everything…grow up as in suck it up…grow up as in…"

She went on like this for a while. It wasn't particularly flattering.

Gone was the fire of defiance, the burning will to obtain her desire. Eventually she sat deflated on a large stray stone, letting the cool seep into her aching legs.

Of course, she would still tremble and melt in his arms given the chance, but more and more she wondered if that was really the game at play.

Sarah hoped to god no one would come upon her. For one, she had no desire to explain herself. Secondly, well…oh she just couldn't be bothered. Nothing did any good as far as she was concerned. This wasn't a test or a task or anything she could meet and accomplish. No, this was a conundrum which defied explication, defied remedy, defied her will to comprehend.

Shaking the fleeting thought of his piercing gaze and devilish grin from her mind, she let her eyes rest in leaden stubbornness on the colorless sky above.

_Ah, there's no point!_ A part of her screamed mutely. _Nothing here is as it seems_. _How is anything supposed to mean anything at all? Why do I keep trying, keep wandering like a maniac?_

But there was no answer for her question. No ear to hear the tumult in her soul. She was alone and there was little to do apart from accept…accept the general inanity…accept her own authorship in this insanity.


	4. Chapter 4

Lifting her heavy head at last from her hands, Sarah caught her breath to find a curious flower growing up beside her.

_That wasn't here before_. Sarah mused with furrowed brow.

To her surprise, as she watched the flower opened its petals, almost sighing as its silk folds unfurled. In the center of the flower's bloom, Sarah gasped to find a miniature of the little dancing figurine that used to adorn her old music box. Familiar music filtered faintly through the air.

Tired Sarah couldn't help but smile and rub her forehead in a strange mixture of sadness and joy.

Expression softened momentarily, Sarah let her fingers gently cup the bud as it stood and sang with sweet irony the song of nostalgia's low pining.

"Oh, Jareth…why all of this? Why not simply possess me as you know you can…are you really only made of cruelty?"

Somehow Sarah could not accept that the entire farce was merely an empty ploy. The game stung because it drew blood. The Goblin King pierced her to the core, and she could not help but imagine that his unique power over her stemmed from something equally raw and gripping inside his own soul. Then again, nothing was certain…

Her eyes turned again to the flower.

"You think you are stronger now that you look on as I suffer your absence, but only I know the power you have yet to claim. Only I know the force you wield in my heart of hearts. Play in your castle, make tapestries of your cruelty, some secrets only yield when they are sought."

_Perhaps he's afraid that his cruelty is all he can lord over me_… her dry mouth curled in half-mad smirk.


	5. Chapter 5

Sarah had wandered to a little fountain in the midst of the dark looming walls of the Labyrinth's topiary gardens.

Her mouth was parched, and so stooping she cupped some of the brackish water and tried to pass it through her lips. She was sure it tasted something awful, but her body was severely dehydrated. She took a few more palmfuls before sitting back again to meditate on her current state.

_How strange it is…how strange. To know that you are enslaved to another in your entire being and yet that means nothing, solves nothing, serves no purpose in and of itself_…

"Sarah…" a voice cut in. No need for her to turn and see who it was. The sound of it plucked every fiber every sinew in her body.

She sat outwardly unflinching, head slightly lowered to the side.

_Let him come forward, I am nothing in this state_…she remarked darkly to herself. From her current condition, it would have meant just as much if she had sat in supplication and abdication at his feet—namely, nothing.

So she did nothing. Consumed by a heavy and resigned patience. She could not leave the Labyrinth, not now. Not when she knew this was what she herself had chosen. Her boldness and bravery gone, the only thing left was to endure. _Perhaps the mere act of enduring could be a kind of love…or a kind of folly…_she laughed internally at her own reasoning.

Some stirring in her core made her at last look up to where the voice had sounded.

Jareth was standing still as bird of prey, eyeing her with terrifying resolution.

"What do you want," Sarah stated flatly.

"My dear Sarah, the question for you is rather this—what do _you_ want?"

"Hah!" Sarah chuckled, bitterness gilding her throat, "Does it matter to you?"

Silence.

"Perhaps," she began to grow thoughtful, "Perhaps I want what I want to matter to you."

"Do you think it does?" he retorted with some semblance of sincerity.

"How on earth would I ever know?" Sarah looked up to the heavens and spread her hands in a gesture of apathetic helplessness.

He smiled, cocked his head.

"Perhaps you won't." And left her with a new _koan_ to contemplate.

Speaking to herself, as was the developing custom, Sarah mumbled under her breath, "Perhaps I won't indeed. Ah, Jareth, Jareth, Jareth…why come to me at all then? When will I be allowed to love? _Will_ I be allowed to love? Is _this_ loving what I do now? What is it here that I do? Is this love what you do to me? Ah, Jareth, Jareth, Jareth…tyrant over Goblins, merciless ruler of this silly heart…"


	6. Chapter 6

"Hahahahah…" Sarah chortled wildly to herself. Lying under a tree that reminded her of the tree she once fell asleep under, drugged by a magic peach, a thought shot through her strained mind.

"Oh, Jareth, oh dear Jareth…I get it…I get it now…you think I'll change…you think I won't be this, your abject slave, if you reveal yourself to be one who rules with kindness instead of cruelty…hahahahah…"

She laughed to cause disquiet for the birds in the creaking tree limbs above.

Rolling over on her side and clutching the exposed root of the tree, she addressed it in a half stupor, eyes fixed on something burned into her mind.

"This much you do not understand, no…my liege…I am bound by a chain fiercer and heavier than any cruelty you might compose. Realize, any power you have over me draws from that, not these silly games…games…games…"

She sniggered, rolled back over to face the sky and let the breeze pass lightly over her drawn features. Then breathed several calming breaths, letting her sober reflections get the better of her for a moment.

"Inhale, one, two, three…ah Jareth…your name I say it so often it is something like my pulse or my heartbeat. Ah what a pity, what a pity…you wish your love to wallow in this pathetic state forever?"

More deranged laughter.

She rolled a bit more to the other side and let her hands trail along the tree root in imitation of a caress. Heedless, she let her lips draw near the glimmering bark as if by doing so she could somehow draw her lips nearer to the one she desired.

At last, her hands in their aimless fumbling stumbled upon something round, soft and squishy.

A peach…


	7. Chapter 7

Dreams of ball rooms, faces, masks…the dark shadow of a whisper as yet unspoken.

"You've done this before," Sarah squeezed the peach into a mushy pulp in her hand, as she stood suddenly alert.

The realization dawned like a snake shooting through the grass. Before she had time to think a step further, a silken tone sleeked its way into her eardrum.

"And so have you…"

Sarah gaped, right hand still full of peach puss. Wheeling around, she planted her feet in bold opposition, bracing herself for the overpowering presence of the Goblin King.

"Lovely little Sarah, unwitting seducer of the Fae…time you made use of that wit."

"Wha…"

"Hush now before you fill your delectable mouth with falsehoods. Don't feign ignorance with me, Sarah. I can be generous, nurturing, kind…but try and deceive me and you shall learn a different lesson." He let a gloved hand rest lightly on a raised thigh as he pressed his feline weight into a curiously shaped stone.

"Generous?" her eyes popped from their sockets as they did once long before, "I really must be missing the sense of that word. This is the second time I hear it from your lips."

He spread his hands with irritatingly smug nonchalance at the air around them as if to encompass the whole of the Labyrinth in one catty swoop.

"All right…my dear King…if I understand you mean my time here, my torment…"

"You desired it. I was only crafting for you the sanctuary you called out for in the night."

He was no longer propped up on the rock. His footsteps edged gradually and restlessly towards Sarah's sober expression.

"This…" she trailed taking in her surroundings with marked intent, "is your gift to me?"

"It's your gift to yourself, my child."

"Now, you!" she had to restrain herself from reaching up to grab a hold of the darkly sparkling smirk spread across his self-satisfied face. "I shall not insist, but I will ask. Don't prevaricate."

"I'm not, believe me, I'm not…" his voice waxed rich and languid dusted with the shimmer of half-forgotten dreams. He only inched more steadily closer.

"So I am to understand one thing…you…have done this before."

"Something like it. It's of no consequence."

"What does it mean?"

"Am I not your slave? Would you question me now Sarah after everything you've promised in your heart of hearts…" he turned his head, displaying a regal profile to Sarah's racing senses, "and then, you yourself are not without some experience in the matter…"

"It can't be the same," Sarah's brow furrowed, grasping at a dim and foggy memory.

"It isn't. But the comparison might still be drawn…" Jareth let his eyes flood over Sarah's conscious being until he could detect the dilation in her pupils and the clouded look of wonder he always loved to sire in her gaze.


	8. Chapter 8

Dripping juices of sickeningly pulpy fruit oozed from out Sarah's trembling fingers. Glancing down at her hand, a short pang of remorse shot through her side, _why did I destroy this? Perhaps it was a gift_. Perhaps he had meant it to lead her to some new dream.

She shook her head to clear the thought from her mind.

_Too late now_.

Jareth waited, unflinching.

"So you say you wish to ask, to request an account of me now? Do I look like an Aboveground bank teller to you, dear Sarah?" he eyed her with lavish sarcasm.

Sarah's mind raced, trying to find the right words.

_Always the right words_...

"My secrets lie open to you, what more can you require?" Sarah retorted at last. She'd learned a few tricks from her Fae companion at this point to know strategically dodging questions might prove productive.

His face soured a moment, apparently irked at his own hesitation. In that instant, Sarah wondered if he did in fact entertain some sort of operating scruple. It seemed from her perspective as though he could not simply and flatly convince himself that her inner secrets meant nothing to him.

She smiled.

"Go on, try me." Her hand let the messy peach skin and pit fall and hit the earth with a plaintive thud.

He lunged and withdrew in a sinewing pace around her stationary figure.

"Come now, my king, you cannot honestly expect me to believe you aren't hopelessly wrought in the jouissance of your own dissimulating craft." Sarah bit her lower lip in a goad. "I may be an earthling, but at this point the game's gone beyond extravagant intuition to the plain field of common sense."

Yes, Sarah knew he treasured his own effect above all else. Indeed, she was counting on it. Slippery though the wager might be-as soon as he read a new wave of comprehension he was liable to shift once more, obsessively turning the ever-spinning wheel of confusion and desire. His twisting psyche spelled a shifting derivative plied onto the latest assumption of his passion's object, with the result that a thought-if held to in any manner-was liable to unwind itself as soon as his imperious ego should demand.

Anyway, it didn't matter. His particular cupidity was the unmistakable hallmark of his oeuvre...in other words, the man was so enraptured in the game he could not help but capture his own psyche in the end.

"Very well. A trial," he spat out.

"A trial?" Sarah mused, engaged at the new suggestion.

"You allow me and my goblins to try your little human heart, my Sarah. How about that?"

Deep down Sarah recognized the trial had begun long ago.

"And how shall you reward me for my compliance?"

"First you must manage a favorable verdict..." he scoffed with haughty interruption.

"And when I do?" Sarah trembled, but her confidence did not desert.

"So sure then, are you?" A gnarled sneer which Sarah promptly dismissed.

"What will you allow me to ask in recompense for the boon of self-sacrificial entertainment?" She took a step in his direction, her constitution hardening word by word.

"Ask." He stated with a slight shiver of dismissal mixed with distrustful anxiety.

"You will then allow me to put _you_ on the stand. You and your entire Labyrinth."

"Very well. But mind you, you must undergo my and my goblins' examinations first..."

"Agreed."


	9. The Trial part 1

The raucous roar of Goblins in every state of amusement filled the tawny hall to the extent that reasonable communication was strictly theoretical.

Sarah found herself in the same clothes she'd been wearing for days. Her throat still unbelievably parched. Hair was slowly knotting into a rat's nest, and the goblins swarming at her sides made every effort to accelerate the process.

One pinched her rudely on the buttocks and made a lewd comment. Sarah yelped scornfully and tried to swat him away.

Jareth chided from across the room, "Now, now don't molest the creature..." With a rap of his cane and a pivot on his hips he looked back from over his shoulder with a devious light in his eyes, "That'll be my job," he added darkly.

The entire gaggle of goblins let loose in a piercing uproar. Tears practically burst from their eyes. Some grabbed their little round guts and rolled around on the hay and dust smattered floor, bumping into the odd frazzled chicken.

Truly, the scene was a madhouse.

Jareth was very pleased with his handiwork. In fact, he'd almost put out of mind how strong Sarah had seemed but a few hours ago when she faced him and provoked him to this challenge.

Amidst the demeaning snickers of Jareth's foul-mannered minions, Sarah did her best to swallow her indignation and look defiant. But it was hard to feel like she should be taken seriously given the state of her person. She was an absolute wreck and there was simply no denying the fact of it.

Jareth let the time stretch and draw out, savoring each time Sarah had to pick out bits of hay or feathers a goblin had decided to cunningly insert into the tangled mess of her hair. He didn't know why he loved to see his heart's desire in this state, yet somehow it gave him pleasure to watch her struggle through the tide of annoyances and mockery assailing her from every angle. Yes, pleasure.

At last, Sarah would stand for it no longer. Threatening the nearest crowd of goblins with her brandished foot, she then stomped, harrumphed and locked her arms akimbo before clearing her throat to shout across the open space to her adversary.

"Jareth, I think it's time the trial begin. I agreed to standing trial after all, not to swimming like a ragdoll in a goblin circus."

He knew her point was valid and well stated. Pausing a minute or so longer, pretending he'd only half heard her plaint, Jareth at last rapped his cane ceremoniously and called the burgeoning sea of goblin faces to attention.

"Now what brings us here today...is a trial," he stated with histrionic flare. Little goblin gasps punctuated his pauses.

"Not the trial of a fae or a goblin...rather the trial of a human heart."

The giddy feeling in Sarah's chest began to rise and press against her skin, making her tingle all over.

"And you, my filthy subjects, have been granted the honor of assisting me in my final verdict."

A chorus of oooh's and aaah's swelled through the throng of dark eyes and warty noses.

"Now, " Jareth started...

Immediately, a particularly talkative one took the initiative to seek clarification.

"Does that mean we get to ask her questions?"

"Yes," Jareth hissed in assent. He didn't like being interrupted.

One question led to a flock of new voices climaxing in a cacophony of completely irrelevant queries.

"Can we ask her about chickens?"

"...Do we get to climb on top of her?"

"When will they serve lunch?"

"What are the regulations on bugger sling shot contests?"

"Enough! Silence!" The goblins quivered and grew quiet. The few that were still caught up in the inertia of proffering random questions to no one in particular were quickly hushed by their more sagacious compatriots.

Jareth was clearly in no joking mood. His humor was turning particularly foul. Any goblin would be a total idiot to try his patience now. Of course goblins weren't that smart, but still, they all knew what the Bog of Eternal Stench smelled like.

"I will select from among you and call those selected one by one to question the convict."

Sarah let out a cry of protest and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Since when am I a convict? We haven't even started yet. And what am I convicted of? Where I come from you can't convict somebody till after a verdict's been reached. Until then you're just the accused. But what on earth am I accused of?"

The goblins snickered at Sarah's hotheaded outburst. She should know better than to cross the Goblin King.

"Everything!" He stated flatly and without hesitation.

"Everything?" Sarah shot him a quizzical glance.

"My dear Sarah, now listen closely...and DO NOT interrupt. Your well-being depends on it. Understand, you a trespasser of my land are accused of all the capital crimes in goblin history: negligence to the crown, espionage, blatant irreverence, and treason! To top it off, you are incurably cold to me." At this his eyes flashed daggers into hers.

"How am I a trespasser? Did you not bring me here in the first place?"

"Not you, as in your person. But your heart...yes your heart has trespassed into the labyrinth of my own. How's that for spying?"

"I'm sorry, this makes no sense," Sarah shook her head in bewilderment.

"There's no backing out now, Sarah. You have agreed to my trial, my terms. Now fulfill your obligations or I will charge you with yet another infraction!" His irises were blazing now. Sarah didn't understand if this was a game or if this rage was real that she saw pouring from him.

"What do you want me to do?" she finally responded.

"Answer the question. How's that for spying?"

"I don't know what you mean. I am not a spy."

"You're not a spy then, are you? Then why do you look at me with those eyes?"

"How do I look at you?" she was breathlessly confused.

"No one looks into my eyes and sees further than I want them to see. Why is it you dare to pry behind my mask?"

"I only see what it is I see. I have never pried. I just see. It's not spying if it's in plain sight."

"To top it off you say you desire me, you care for me, that you even love me! Ah you swear you'd spend eternity with me and yet you neglect me. What sort of vile hypocrisy is this?" Jareth countered heatedly with a new prong.

Sarah's heart skipped a beat as she processed these last words. Jareth didn't give her time to formulate a response, however. He continued.

"And if it is true, that you simply see and do not spy into the internal workings of my heart, then why can't you see well enough to grasp your own hypocrisy? Is it not callous of you to behold the softened center of my love and then do nothing?"

"I...I...did what I could. I came back. I called for you."

"Even then you were cold, could not humble yourself to walk into my awaiting embrace. While you were wandering the labyrinth feeling sorry for yourself like some adolescent, who was sitting crushed in his castle hoping you would go and seek him out?"

"I'm here now," was all she could manage.

"Yes, well, let's see how long you last."

Sarah wrung her wrists and took a deep breath. She really didn't know where this was going. Her stomach ached with pent up emotions. Still, she stood firm.

"Look at you even now, how you fail to reverence the grace and favor I have bestowed upon you! Not even a tear of remorse for your uncalled for cruelty."

Sarah swallowed hard, fighting back the wetness in her eyes, "But you always mocked me when I appeared weak to you. I thought you needed me to be strong. So that's what I tried to do. Be strong for you."

"Oh, really?"

Sarah nodded almost sheepishly, eyes ducking to the floor.

The sight of her defenses crumpling softly before him nearly undid his composure. Nevertheless, he banked on the welling resolution in his soul and pushed mercilessly forward.

"Strong for me? Or did you mean to use your strength to cut me down? Betray the one heart that beat only for you! If you loved me, why did you cut me so?"

"How," she could barely speak, a tear streaked down her cheek, "how did I ever betray you?" She wanted to say 'my love' at the end, but her throat closed shut over the words.

"I offered you everything. You rejected it. I gave you another chance, you spat on it. I presented my heart to you on a plate, and what sort of welcome did it receive? Contempt, contention, coldness, indifference! You walked away from me..."

"I'm sorry, Jareth, if you felt that way. I never meant..."

"Forget it," he waved his regal hand dismissively. "It is time for the goblins to start with the cross examination."


	10. The trial part 2

Hours passed as one goblin after another rose to face her at her stand and pose a series of inane and ridiculous questions.

The first goblin had been a short, round, squat little entity with a bulbous nose and wild white jets of hair standing perpendicular to its spotted cranium.

Sauntering crudely up to challenge her composure, it held its breath a moment before blurting out in a surprisingly high pitched tone,

"What do you do when you've already sat down on the John only to discover there's no toilet paper in the privy?"

Sarah's eyes had bugged and she'd almost died from an instantaneous fit of coughing. Regrouping her wits, she'd then turned instinctively to Jareth as if to appeal the relevance of such a question.

He smiled venomously and proclaimed with absolute rigidity, "Answer the question, Sarah."

So she did. She answered every question brought to her. No matter how inane, mindless and embarrassing it happened to be.

At first she'd lost all sense of orientation. Then, she came to understand this was part of Jareth's revenge. His hawk eyes scanned her every motion of discomfort and pained forbearance. He drank her suffering. Gripping the path of her vision as it cut across his figure, he held her transfixed as she stammered between breaks in the questioning. She understood Jareth desired her to see him watching her in bitter silence. This part of the trial wasn't about content. It was about endurance.


	11. The trial part 3

Sarah knew the tremors in her body must be visible to the entire room at this point. Fatigue and emotional overdrive rendered her limbs a pile of quivering jelly.

It seemed like the goblins were almost finished though. Four hours it'd been. She could feel her voice about to go.

At last, a small pug-faced goblin with large obsidian eyes made its winding way toward her stand.

Sarah took a deep breath and prepared herself for another senseless question.

The creature cleared its throat with surprising professionalism.

"So tell me now, Kingy's pet, you grow tired of Kingy?"

Sarah blinked, amazed to find he'd actually asked her something of pressing relevance to her trial.

"Never," Sarah whispered as though she'd just been stung.

"Never, never, never? Not when Kingy angry, not when Kingy mean, not when you with Kingy a long time, not when you see new pretty fae, not when Kingy don't say I love you..."

Jareth waved a hand curtly wishing to cut off the little Goblin's soliloquy. He didn't appreciate the thing going into too much detail about his feelings for Sarah in front of all the other goblins.

"How could I grow tired of him? If you love someone, if you belong to them and they to you, it's preposterous to even think that way. Bad days, good days, misunderstandings, hurtfulness, what does it matter?"

"So you love me?" A darker, richer voice cut in before the goblin had time to take up Sarah's response.

Nearly overcome at the sound of his voice, Sarah stilled the jolt in her chest and turned to look Jareth in the eye. His expression was intense, almost ravenous, yet patient...waiting, waiting for Sarah to give him the answer he so hoped to hear.

"Yes, Jareth," Sarah swallowed, "I love you." Suddenly she felt very dizzy.

"And you're not tired of me?" he pronounced with lips awry.

"Like I said, why would I be?" Sarah's eyes glistened with an ineffable innocence.

Jareth held his tongue. He knew this was her trial, so I he didn't want to start heaping potential accusations on himself.

Instead of responding to the child-like plea shining forth from Sarah's weary green eyes, he snapped his fingers imperiously causing all the goblins to shuffle nervously away from her stand.

Standing up haughtily with cane in hand, Jareth gracefully slid across the room and planted himself between the hoards of subjects and the one creature who had the power to wound the inner sanctum of his heart.

"Well?" He raised his cane over his minions' gritty little heads.

"What shall it be? What do you say? Is she guilty?" he let the rise in pitch at the end of his question trail suggestively.

"YES. GUILTY. GUILTY. GUILTY!" Came the unequivocal response. Sarah's heart sank.

"See Sarah, you're guilty of stealing my heart. What do you have to say for yourself," he wheeled upon her like a jungle cat.

"You can have mine," she proffered, feeling like that was probably the stupidest thing she could have managed to eek out.

"Can I?" He paced in front of her, clearly enthralled at her suggestion. But his enthusiasm he cloaked in a veil of cold opposition and disbelief.

"Yes. It's already yours. I wouldn't let anyone else put their hands on it-not for the world."

Jareth stopped pacing.

"Jareth, when will this farce end? You say I am cold, that I harm you, that I neglect you, but how can I love you the way your heart begs to be loved if you keep me always at arm's length? And don't think I'm complaining. If that's where you want to keep me, fine. I'll manage. But you just made it sound like I've been ignoring you completely when you know that simply isn't true. Like the morning star, the thought of you rises with me when I wake. Like moon, the tides of your tempestuous nature tug at the oceans of my existence without fail. Like the sun, your favors and cherished affections warm the soil of my being and feed the flourishing canopy of life that grows in your honor there. Can't you see? Can't you see how much you mean to me? How it's not going to change? That I'm not going to leave you? Or say I quit and close the door behind me? Even if I disagree with what you do or think it's wrong. That I'll stick with you. Because I trust you. Trust that you have a heart. A conscience. And because I love you. And feel more deeply than I could ever say that you love me too?"

The usual hum of goblin chatter had died down to complete and total silence.

Jareth touched a gloved hand to his strained forehead before meeting her gaze once more.

"So you love me."

"Yes, I love you."

"You're not going to change your mind."

"No, not in a thousand years."

"Not ever?"

"Never, I'm all in."

"You'll live with me? Be mine?"

"Of course."

"Say it."

"I'll live with you. Be yours."

"Bear me a child?"

Sarah's heart leapt. She hadn't expected him to be so forward, intimate with her.

"Yes, if that is what you desire."

"No, but do you desire it?" he checked.

"Yes, I do."

"Do what?"

"Desire to...be the mother of your children," this last phrase made her heart race to speak aloud.

"And you'll love me?"

"Yes, I'll love you."

"You'll let me make you happy?"

"You always make me happy."

At this she could tell Jareth's mask was beginning to fall away. His jaw dropped slightly with satisfied realization. Yes, his Sarah loved him. Wasn't afraid to say it anymore. All he had needed to do was ask.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, my love, I'm ready. But you promised me something."

At this the light in his face dimmed again. He had been mistaken. Sarah was going to turn on him like every one that came before.

"I did," he uttered, crestfallen.

"Jareth," she said trying to coax him, "You promised me an account of yourself if I received a favorable verdict. And I know I am guilty. Guilty of stealing your heart. But you know that you hold mine in the palm of your hand. I just wanted to say, I think I understand why you do the things you do. And I'm not going to hold it against you. I wanted to make that clear."

He wasn't quite sure how to take this.

"Jareth, forget the trial. Yours. Mine. Let's just be together. We've paid our ransoms to this bloody circus. It's time we had our happy ending. Beginning, rather..."

Sarah stepped out from behind the stand. Approaching the bewildered king, she gently sought his hand, squeezed it and brought it to her lips.

"My liege, my love, what is your command?"

**THE END**

**Author's note: there may be an epilogue. Haven't decided. Thanks everyone for reading!**


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